James's story, of a large firm asserting ownership over something whose rights have in fact reverted to the artist, will be repeated again and again as AI fingerprinting will default to "the major label still owns it" instead of "this belongs the person who made it." that's why the big guys like AI.
Warner Music Group is claiming that they own my Monkey Vs. Robot album rights. They most definitely DON'T have any rights in it at all, but they're asserting that they do. What will happen? I suggest buying it on Bandamp before it gets wiped off the internet: kochalka.bandcamp.com/album/monkey...
31 track album
“The purpose of the Internet is to reduce the cost of crime at scale.”
I suspect this is a “ happy accident” for them. Unplanned but also a low priority to fix.
The Purpose of a System is What it Does
What's wild is that Copyright is one of those systems where the legal outcome is frequently on the side of the little guy, but practically, who's going to find the money to fight Warner lawyers?
What do the societies say? ASCAP, BMI, PRS, etc.